Who may review a dissertation?

All authorized advisors may be reviewers and examiners. Other reviewers are usually professors or comparable academic staff. Junior professors can also take on these tasks. The reviewers should be familiar with the German doctoral procedure.

 

How many expert opinions are required?

As a rule, two expert opinions are obtained. Additional reviews may be required in the following cases:

Possible award of "summa cum laude":

• The dissertation is or could be graded "0" = with distinction.
• An independent external reviewer must be appointed.
• This person should be a professor at a university or hold a comparable position at a research institution.
• Possible external reviewers should, as far as foreseeable, already be named in the application (application for admission to the doctoral examination) or should be proposed in good time by email to the doctoral office at an early stage.

Cooperative dissertation:

• Completion of the dissertation in institutional cooperation with a university of applied sciences, an external university or a research institution (a cooperation agreement has been approved by the doctoral committee).
• Please state this in the application (application for admission to the doctoral examination).

Subject-related reasons:

• Special subject-specific requirements.
• Please state in the application (application for admission to the doctoral examination).

Deviating grade proposals:

• The grades proposed by the assessors differ by more than one grade. The doctoral committee will appoint another expert opinion.

Expert opinion request and deadlines

The doctoral candidate contacts the reviewers by email and submits the dissertation with a request for a review. In addition, the reviewers receive an automatic notification with a deadline via the Docfile system.

The reviews should be submitted within the specified deadline be submitted. In justified exceptional cases, the Doctoral Committee may extend the deadline to a maximum of three months.

Notes on the expert opinion

The review should consist of at least two pages and be dated and signed. The review should briefly summarize the dissertation and classify the academic performance as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the work. The grade should be clearly and comprehensibly justified.

The following grades can be awarded for the dissertation:

0 = with distinction (summa cum laude): for exceptionally high academic achievement
1 = very good (magna cum laude): for above-average academic achievement
2 = good (cum laude): for an academic achievement that meets average requirements
3 = sufficient (rite): for an academic achievement that still meets the requirements
4 = insufficient (insufficiens): for an academic achievement that no longer meets the requirements due to significant deficiencies.

For a differentiated assessment, grades 1 to 3 can be increased or decreased by 0.3 or the intermediate values 1.5 and 2.5 can be given. The grade 3.3 is excluded.

If there are significant objections to the approach, implementation, results or presentation, a reviewer may recommend a revision of the dissertation to the doctoral committee. If such a condition is imposed, the revision must be completed within 12 months.

A doctoral candidate may withdraw the dissertation once, provided the review deadline has not yet expired, and resubmit it for review after revision.

Expert opinion display

The reviews and the dissertation are available for inspection by the faculty's professors at the Dean's Office for five working days. A reasoned objection to the acceptance, rejection or proposed grading may be raised within six working days of the start of the display. If no objection is raised, the dissertation is deemed to have been accepted and the disputation can take place.